Lost in You
by Ella Lola
Summary: Seven years ago, Tadase made a wish on the Embryo and everything changed. Chara's and memories were lost, and only a few of us remembered each other. False memories were placed but everyone remembered. Everyone except her, and she doesn't suspect a thing.


Dear beloved reader,

This oneshot contains the perverted thoughts of Ikuto Tsukiyomi at the age of twenty four.

Oh yes, I just went there. Truly and utterly shocked myself, but hey - it was pretty fun. Not sure if I should try it again, it was simply an experiment to see how mature my writing could be - naturally with pure sillyness mixed into it.

There is some swearing and silly fantasies of his, but none of them go anything close to nudity.

Its just an attempt to get into a male mindset, and to try and challenge my writing style. Constructive criticism would be deeply appreciated, or even just a quick shout as to whether you liked it or not.

I'm so sorry for slacking with this account, and I plan to update all of my stories as soon as possible - there are so many half finished drafts, I just need to finish them. Thanks for putting up with me, even though so many of you must have felt like quitting. #nevergonnagiveyouup,nevergonnaletyoudown...

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><p>Amu stood there proudly at the altar, a smile stretching across her beautiful face. I couldn't help but smile. A warm blush flushed her cheeks, and her eyes sparked and flickered due to the endless stream of emotion. It didn't take a genius to show how happy she was, to see the pure joy in her liquid gold eyes.<p>

Another newly wedded couple arose next to me. They were holding each other uncomfortably close and their soft laughter was slurred. They reeked of spirits and I shuddered in disgust when the man slapped his new bride on the ass. She giggled and tried to grope him back, but fell over instead. It took way too much of my imagination to remind myself that I was looking at newlyweds Yaya and Kairi. I would never underestimate the power of alcohol again.

The awkward thing about going to your friend's weddings is that everyone knows what the newlyweds will be doing later on in the night. This was painfully clear - the fact that we were in Vegas didn't make the situation any better.

"Kukai Souma, do you take this woman as your lawfully beloved wife?"

"I do." he murmured, his green eyes dancing with glee. I felt like punching him, it looked like he would finally get in her pants. Everyone knew that was what he had always wanted, but she approved of him and in the end that was all that mattered. I'm not the most important thing in the world, and she definitely knew so.

I politely closed my eyes. It was better than barging out of the lousy chapel and onto the neon lit streets. He made her happy; I could no longer take care of her. It only made sense to let her go into the arms of another man, but it was so hard. I had known her my entire life and she was choosing a soul mate. I was just thankful that it wasn't Tadase; I think I would have turned into a serial killer if that were to happen. No way would I have him seeing me more than I had to - he had refused to communicate with Amu when she denied his spontaneous proposal when they were both sixteen. I would have severely lectured her if he had agreed - they weren't even in a relationship and never had been.

Despite what the rumour mill had spewed out in their long-forgotten childhood, Tadase had never actually made a proper move on Amu. He simply fell in love with someone who she wasn't, forcing her to take on a full character instead of focusing on her creative and motherly skills and whatever Dia was. We never found out what Dia was exactly because of him. He had unintentionally forced her to become someone like Ran and not a mixture of everything else – a small slice of who she really is. By only accepting her athletic side, Tadase had hurt Amu more than she would like to admit. That had made me hate the kid enough; there was no way he would be married to her.

"You may now kiss the bride."

The polite eye closing transfigured itself into intense cringing. I couldn't bear to look.

The Souma kid was a good guy, but if he ever touched her the wrong way or broke her heart, I would not hesitate to rip out his spine and beat him within an inch of his life.

I groaned as strangers applauded the new couple. With my left hand, I pulled a full vodka bottle to my lips and revelled in the smooth burning sensation as it slid down my throat. It was done, there was no going back. In the back of my mind, I was thankful that the wedding script failed to contain a phrase where I could interrupt the ceremony. It was better to say quiet, to brew in my own emotions about the whole ordeal. Perhaps I could tell someone – but that was a foolish thought. Ikuto Tsukiyomi does not confide his emotions in others; he's a stray cat, a lone wolf. No one needs to go through my pain, so I will not bestow it unto them – it's as simple as that. I would tell my tale when it was time, not any time before.

A tinkly laugh approached me, and I wanted to swim in the purity of it. "Hey, was it really that bad?" I opened my eyes to see Amu. She looked so proud, so content.

"Not at all," I replied smoothly, before taking another swig and emptying the bottle. I slightly loosened my grip on the smooth glass bottle and it dropped to the carpeted floor with a dull thud. I could not believe she had just done that. She knew I was against it, but she continued to rub it in my face. She had been up there...at the altar...

"Liar." she stated, bending over to my height. Oh she knew me so well. We could have been the cutest couple seven years ago, the dream couple that everyone knew was going to last forever – like Romeo and Juliet, but without the ridiculous deaths and family dramas. We could have been the modern day, perfect version of Romeo and Juliet. "What's wrong?"

"...you just married off my little sister in Vegas with the power you have been bestowed with from a piece of paper you got on the Internet."

"Hey, technically I have the title of a priestess now." she giggled, sliding onto my lap.

But not the normal best friend way - if best friends did ever did slide into each other's laps.

Our best friend way was where she would slide onto my lap with her two deliciously creamy legs to one side, and would lean against me, just close enough so that I could hear the soft thrumming of her heart. Just close enough for us to look like a couple, even though everyone knew that we were anything but. Just close enough that I was barely able to contain my tainted thoughts about Miss Amu Hinamori, the just-turned-eighteen-schoolgirl-slash-newfound-priestess-just-for-the-occasion.

But she had just straddled my lap, shuffling closer to me than I would deem safe for her. Our faces were so close and I could feel her heartbeat like a drum against mine. It was without a doubt that she could hear mine, running a triathlon in the background. I could feel my tainted thoughts roam free, and that scared me more than I would like to admit.

My mind had numbed as she shifted her light weight on my lap, making herself comfortable. As far as I was concerned, she could make herself at home. I tried to pretend that she was wearing an old baggy pair of jeans and a frumpy jumper and not a hypnotizing tight martini dress which I knew that if I looked down, I would definitely catch a glimpse of whatever she was wearing under it. She then grasped my shoulders in that feather soft touch that only she possessed and pulled herself closer to me, pressing herself to me. Her once tiny breasts were pushed against me, a firm reminder that she was no longer a minor and I was no longer bound by the disgusting ropes of the law.

"Thank you for coming with us. It means so much to Kukai and Utau, you have no idea." she murmured in my ear. It occurred to me that this wasn't a fantasy brought to life by a beautiful, oh so beautiful miracle. She was hugging me. Immediately I wrapped my arms around her, binding her to me.

"She _is_ my sister. Even if she was marrying Nikaidou I would have tagged along - although I wouldn't be helping you move tables anytime soon." I admitted, the corner of my lips twitching.

No, I wouldn't help her. Instead I would watch her try to push the heavy solid oak tables with all her might in a tiny black dress while her whole body flushed a magnificent red. She would heave, grunt and complain. That was just typical Amu behaviour. But she would do it so it kindly, teasingly. We had left all unpleasantries behind long ago, and had replaced it with a strong bond which was still building itself higher and higher today. It was a skyscraper of a friendship, that's for sure. But I would not think of friendship at all, but my eyes would glaze over as her hair became frazzled and messy while she panted and a light sheen of sweat coated her cheeks. I slammed the lid closed on my fantasies and threw it far, far away.

No, no, _no._ Ikuto Tsukiyomi, get your head out of that perfect gutter and into the present!

"Ew. Utau has better tastes than that, and Nikaidou is happily married to Yukari." she giggled into my ear.

"Better tastes? Utau chose me, her _brother_, as the perfect soul mate for over fifteen years." I gently reminded her. She pressed me closer to her in our little embrace, pressing her breasts further into me. I repressed the urge to groan.

"How does that make her taste in men bad?" she whispered, her cherry lips ghosting over my ear. My pulse quickened, an erotic spot I had informed her about a lifetime ago. Did she remember? There was always a chance that she never would but I had always stayed hopeful - it was still the same old Amu, but her chara's had made her more open and gentle. Except the Embryo made everyone's chara's return into our hearts too early, left us all unprepared and the majority of us forgot about them. I had made myself take on the role to make Amu more gentle and open when I met her after the incident, and I replaced her chara's. Unlike them, I would never leave her – even though they didn't have a choice in the matter.

The Embryo had made her forget. It had made many people forget the real experiences we had spent together, and replaced them with fake memories of how we were simply people we knew but never spoke to instead of the heart warming tale of how we all fought for freedom and justice in a time of darkness. The false memories eventually disappeared as a few of us remembered, but not Amu. It seemed that the people who were victimized by Easter had never forgotten – Nikaidou, Kairi, Utau, Chichimura, Tadase, Manta, Tsukumo and I.

It took Rima two years to pick up on her past, and her recovery was out of the blue. The ones who remembered tried to befriend the ones who had forgotten, and eventually they all remembered, but in vastly different ways. Rima remembered three months afterwards one night out of the blue and Kukai accidentally kicked a soccer ball into Yaya's head a year and a half afterwards, and she gained her memory back after waking up. Nagihiko found solace in his dancing and had a reverie a day afterwards, catching onto everything rather quickly. Kukai remembered on New Year's Eve after he crashed into Utau, which was two months after the incident. Absolutely everyone else had remembered by now, which was seven years down the track. Everyone except one.

Amu - she hadn't remembered, even though she had fought and been hurt by the enemy more than all of the Guardian's combined. She had the most to lose, besides the Tsukiyomi family, and she always put it on the line to fight for justice. So what was stopping her from remembering the real past - not the one where her parents had sent her to a boarding school and she had fallen down three flights of stairs, through a window until she crashed into a fire escape rail and stopped, therefore she 'couldn't remember the details of the past clearly'.

"Hey Ikuto..." she said, pulling her heart shaped head away from my ear and in front of my face. Her rosy hair ran wild, some tickling the nape of my neck.

"Mmm?" I didn't trust my voice, or my lips. I feared that if I opened them, I would move eight inches forward and taint the lips of the priestess with the wild rosy hair and honeysuckle sweet eyes.

But something was off. Something wasn't quite right, and my mouth was suddenly unbound by the ties of common sense. Her hair was beautiful and untamed, as usual and her eyes still shone like liquid gold. Her weight was approximately the same...

I released her from my tight embrace for a second to tuck a stray lock of her hair behind her cute little ear, when she swayed and sort of fell to the side, lightly giggling. I grabbed her by the waist - a little lower, it was an amazing accident - and scowled.

"Amu, did you...consume any alcoholic beverages tonight?" I murmured to her, leaning my head a little closer. It _was_ Vegas, so it wasn't a completely absurd statement. The scent of spirits dominated my sense of smell, instead of a succulent assortment of berries. I was suddenly irritated. She was under the influence of alcohol. She wasn't in her right mind and I doubted that she would be in my lap this way in any other circumstance.

This was not the way I wanted her, drunk. I wanted the sober Amu Hinamori, the golden girl herself.

"Just Ribena..."

I frowned. That's not right. I tried again, but with a different tactic. "Did anyone give your Ribena a refill?"

Her eyes lit up. Success! "Kukai did before I led him to the altar..." she stated, as if she was reciting a fact from one of her brick-sized biology books.

Kukai. That little shit.

I glanced up to see him waggling his eyebrows over his shoulder at me, while he walked out of the dim room with a hand on my sister's ass. Charming lad. And now my Brother-in-law to boot.

"Whoa..." Amu muttered, swaying. I quickly looked for her glass and found it within seconds - the glow in the dark novelty Elvis glass was easy to spot in the room. She had barely touched her drink, the edges bore dark purple lip stains, but the level had hardly decreased. Thank god, it would pass sooner than later. If she had consumed the very least, and if Kukai was a terrible mixer - which I knew he was -, the mysterious alcoholic substance would be at the bottom of the cup. The less alcohol, the less time it would take for her to sober up.

Everyone was wrapping up - the Souma wedding seemed to be the last of the night. The horrid reception music stopped with a long screech as someone pulled their iPod out of the speaker. Drinks were left scattered and items of clothing were forgotten and left – this church left the clean up job until the morning, when everyone was sober enough to participate.

Everyone was leaving, leaving her alone with me. With me. Ikuto Tsukiyomi. Alone.

_...what are they doing?_

She tipped a bit again, but this time, instead of swaying like a tree on a windy day in my arms, she acted to stop the swaying. She carefully wrapped her delicious legs around my viciously pounding chest.

Everyone had emptied out from the room. Oh God. Give me strength to resist this tasty vixen, sent from above to tempt me and entice my whole soul to corrupt her.

Her perfectly manicured hands settled on my chest. Although I was suited up for the occasion, despite the various layers in-between her milky skin and mine, my flesh caught fire and burned in the most delicious sensation. Her face was so close, two inches away; I could taste the spiked Ribena in her breath.

"Amu, I think you consumed some rum." I said, honestly. I would make her aware; understand that she was more than a little intoxicated. Make sure that she wasn't unaware, so that she would have some mental armour against doing something that she would regret.

_Kukai you little shit._ He knew that she was only beginning to drink properly, so giving her something powerful like rum would completely screw with her senses.

She stared at me with those warm eyes of hers, and began to uncontrollably shake with giggles. "Where has the rum gone?" she growled in a pirate accent. I couldn't help but chuckle, our bodies shaking together in giggles. Even though we had found ourselves in such a scenario, everything was innocent. It always was when it came to us, and if I kept my thoughts to myself, it would stay that way.

"How does it feel to be the priestess of your friends' wedding?" I enquired, happy for some alone time with her. Even though she was drunk and was so close I could probably lick her face and she wouldn't notice due to her hazy state.

"One of the best things I have ever done. It was definitely a memorable moment in my life, and I will never forget it. It has been an absolute honour." she said, suddenly sounding overly mature. Perhaps she was less intoxicated..? "And now I can shout "The Power of Christ Compels You!" and have it actually mean something!" she squealed, a fresh smile on her face with a pair of freshly flushed cheeks.

"And you were also the Maid of Honour. Plenty of titles flying around, hey." I joked, smirking like an idiot. She shuffled closer, and I realized that she was cold. I ran my hands up and down her arms, and she smiled in contentment.

"Thanks Wedding Singer! Well, Yaya was supposed to be the ring bearer, but she got busy." Amu confessed, lightly blushing.

I chuckled. "She got busy alright. Never knew Kairi had it in him." It was a shock to us all; Yaya and Kairi really could hold their alcohol. It was odd to see them both become completely drunk after seeing them slightly tipsy about seven minutes ago, after their own ceremony.

"Before he left with Rima, Nagi said he started them off with some roofies. What's a roofie?" she asked me, her eyes sparkling. Her hands scrunched the fabric of my blazer, and I wanted to tickle her senseless. She was just too cute, too perfect. Too innocent, too corruptible.

"Uh..." I mumbled, not quite sure if I wanted to explain.

"Hey Ikuto?" she interrupted, forgetting that she was waiting for a response.

"Yes Amu?"

"What's your favourite colour?" She asked, eyes still twinkling away like Christmas lights on a moonless night.

"What?"

"There are a zillion colours out there, so which one do you like the most?"

"The most." I repeated to myself, savouring the words on my tongue.

"Yup!" She didn't make sense. She was a human roller coaster. So cheerful and bursting with energy yet mature and observant. How was she even physically possible?

_I wouldn't mind getting a ride on that roller coaster..._

Head. Out. Of. The. Gutter.

"Pink." I blurted, before my brain caught up to my words.

"How manly," she stated, nodding to herself. Her face was so close... and yet she had never been further away. "Only the manliest of men can like pink."

I chuckled to myself, before opening my mouth. I struggled to let the words loose, to stay on topic. But I had to keep the conversational ball rolling and I was completely curious. "Then what's your favourite colour?"

"Oh that's obvious. Purple." she stated, grinning from ear to ear.

"Purple?"

"Oh, yes. Purple."

"Why purple?"

She flushed a magnificent shade of red, travelling down her neck faster than Kukai could shoot one of those 'golden shot victory goals' that he was so fond of.

_I wonder how far that blush went down..._

Concentrate Tsukiyomi.

"W-Why pink?" she stammered, attempting to distract me from my own question.

A smirk slipped over my face. How easy it was to slip into old habits... It was a shame that she didn't remember the various different occasions that I had shared a bed with her. Midori did, but only just. She only sometimes recognised me form her past because she was never involved with the quest for the Embryo. Her father had never met me, so he had nothing to potentially lose.

But Amu had no idea as to what had happened. I was just the boy who Tadase once idolized as a brother, who had become her best friend on the fateful day that he had spontaneously decided to introduce us.

It was when she was in the hospital, mending her mundane injuries, the aftermath of the battle in which I lost everything. To me, it was the day that Tadase pulled me out of my moping - she didn't remember me, just after everything we went through together, why why why...! - and told me that there was still hope and that she was still alive and well. That one day she might remember, that there was a chance that one day she would remember everything. To her it was the day her classmate Tadase came to drop off homework and his family friend came along, and ended up staying long after Tadase left. "Amu dearest, I asked you first. Why purple?"

"Um."

"Um?" I teased, leaning slightly forward. My forehead lightly touched hers, the tip of her nose brushing mine. She turned an even darker scarlet, but made no move to jump off my lap or even try to move back. "Tell me Amu."

"Well..." she leaned back a bit. I was disappointed, until she delved her pixy hands into my azure hair. My inner Yoru was euphoric and I was tempted to let out a purr. "Your hair is a type of blue, right?"

"...Mm." I managed to let out, instead if a full-blown confession and a mind blowing kiss from yours truly. I was getting so cheesy these days. Any minute now and I would cough up a week's supply of nachos for a public school canteen.

She gently removed one hand from my hair and I resisted the urge to growl. She untucked a lock of her rosy hair from behind her left ear and held it in front of my eyes. "My hair is a type of red. A light one, but a red all the same."

"Rosen almost." I commented, eliciting another delicious blush.

"But when red and blue are mixed together, they create a new colour. P-purple." she stammered.

Purple was Amu Hinamori's favourite colour, because it was our hair colours combined. Not because it was the Fujisaki twins' hair colour, or because she loved the scent of fresh violets in the morning. Not because her favourite plush toy - a winged lobster - was sporting a deep purple shade that suited it quite well for a crustacean. Not because her parents wedding rings were embellished with Amethyst gemstones, or even because that was her birthstone.

It was because of me.

I couldn't breathe, time to change the subject. But she interrupted me before I could distract her.

"Hey Ikuto?" she mumbled, her spirit-filled breath ghosting over my face. She really couldn't hold any form of alcohol, and yet I had seen her fight to a near death state over a wish more times than I wanted to remember. Some things you never forgot, but everyone's different. Some things you never remember, and I hoped that one day she would remember. I could only wish, just like Tadase did on the Embryo.

"...Yes?" I managed to reply, my hands threatening to have a mind of their own and go for a walk down Hinamori Valley.

"Tell me a story." she whispered, pulling away from my face and softly placing her rosen head on my shoulder. An electric shock thundered up and down my arm.

"What kind of story?" I whispered, turning my head to gaze into her honeysuckle ones. Was she tired?

"The real one."

My breath caught in my throat for a moment. Did she remember that night seven years ago, when her memories of me bid a silent farewell?

"Well, I'll tell you a real story of mine, but I'm not naming anyone – not even myself. So, there was this seventeen year old boy - " I began, before being rudely cut off by one Miss Amu Hinamori.

"Was he handsome?"

I cracked a smirk. "This kid was downright sexy, and he was skipping school to avoid his sister." I answered, continuing the story. "He wanted somewhere quiet to slip off to, and after some hardcore musing, he found himself in a deep dug out hole."

"Did he dig the hole himself?" she asked quietly, her eyes glazing over. Do I sense a fetish for men performing physical labour?

"No, not that day." I added, a genuine smile trying to sneak onto my face. I twisted it into a smirk. "It was an empty hole in a fenced off construction site, and all the workers had been granted the day off."

"Wouldn't he get stuck? I mean, if the sexy guy wasn't tall enough he could die in a hole like that." Amu stated, the glaze falling off like discarded clothes. Her discarded clothes. I wouldn't mind her taking off that dress, although she could keep the heels...

_Oh,_ _behave!_

I winced as I began to think about how I would go about answering her question. It could have been a remotely believable story if she hadn't asked how he would get out of the hole. I could lie but I never wanted to lie to her. She deserved to know the truth about her past, even though she wouldn't remember or take it seriously. If anything, I owed her the truth.

"Well you see, this teenager had a little friend. It was the size of an egg, and was in the form of a little cat who called himself Yoru. This cat, Yoru, had a unique bond with the boy and could change his character and give him certain abilities. One of these abilities was to be able to jump an unreal distance into the sky, so he wasn't particularly worried about getting stuck. So the boy had fallen asleep with the distant noises of traffic and soft dirt under his body-"

"Isn't that dangerous though?" Amu butted in, head jerking up from my shoulder. "Someone could attack him in his sleep – or a rock could fall on him! You have to help him Ikuto, like you have to me!"

I chuckled softly to myself as she settled back down to my shoulder with a panicked expression tainting her innocent face with concern. "You have helped me most of all Amu, you changed me for the greater good."

_How completely soppy, but I guess it is true._

Amu's eyes fluttered and she began to scowl. "Sorry, I didn't hear you properly. Stop muttering to yourself, it's impossible to hear you."

I cleared my throat and bent my head closer to her face. She slowly flushed a light pink. "It wasn't anything important." I lied.

"Then tell me more about the boy." she demanded, eyes silently raging, thirsty for the rest of the tale. If only she knew it wasn't fiction.

"He had fallen asleep, Yoru in his pocket following suite. And he was having this beautiful dream. It was of his mother and father, both of which were tearing up four contracts - one for each member of his family-"

"Wha-" Amu butted in, but I was faster.

"The contracts were binding all of the members of his family to a corrupt company that was originally created by themselves, but only for recording music. But his father had run away from owning the company and his wife, and another man had taken his place as head of the company and took his wife unwillingly in one fell swoop. Then the other man ruled the company with an iron fist, enslaving her children by threatening to hurt their mother, who had grown ill. By dreaming of tearing up those contracts, they were freeing his family, and they could finally live in peace instead of creating a provoked war on dreams.

"He was thoroughly enjoying the dream, until he heard something that aroused him from his sleep. It sounded like someone arguing with themselves. It was probably a passerby from outside the fence. He shrugged it off and began to doze off again when this unit of mass fell onto him, completely winding him and catching him off guard."

Amu's lips slightly parted in wonder. "What was it?" she whispered, her divine voice soothing the headache which was beginning to make itself known. Ugh, was I getting a hangover already? At least it would be over faster, I could sleep through the worst of it.

"It was a primary school girl, who had been crying. She looked like a doll, an angel in disguise. Donned in official school uniform, she had revamped the whole thing to look almost gothic but with a Lolita twist. But even though there was a five year difference, as she was twelve, he knew that she was beautiful."

Amu puffed up her cheeks. "What was her name?"

"Do I sense some jealousy?" I chuckled, feeling her bob slightly with each one of my deep chuckles. She looked away, avoiding my pointed gaze. I raised an eyebrow - that was new. Usually she would rage at me, deny the mere idea of her liking me more than a friend as if I was accusing her of giving kindergardeners Chlamydia as a closet hobby - and finally, she would storm off.

I decided to continue the story, but I softened my voice - no longer speaking animatedly but in caressing tones that would make liquid velvet jealous. "She fell directly onto the boy, her little body slamming into his chest. She started to mutter with her eyes closed about how the ground was so soft, and musing aloud about why her landing wasn't as painful as it should have been.

"He spoke up then, snapping her out of her state of confusion. "I was having the most wonderful dream..." he had said, alerting her to his presence.

"And then their eyes met, and the girl was expressionless. So was the boy, for he was always calm and collected, but his eyes were slightly wider. He eyes were a pool of golden honey, specks of brazen gold scattered into the abyss."

Amu groaned, burying her head further into my shoulder. I continued on - she needed to hear this story. She needed to know what she meant to me, even if she never understood.

"Did they kiss?" Amu asked innocently, and I could see her cheeks rise in what was definitely a smile.

I felt this urge to tell the story the way I wanted it to have been - that the moment the girl fell on the boy he realised that that he had fallen in love with her instead of screwing around with her emotions until he figured out where he stood. That she felt the same way about him, and not any other men. That they were on the same team, that the girl didn't fight tooth for tooth during the battles against X-Eggs and downright evil companies. That she didn't plunge head first into that mass of negative energy and fling it outwards, just for Tadase to stutter, panic and make a stupid wish that didn't benefit anyone and inconvenienced everyone.

"No, of course not. She was a primary school student and he was a high school student - you can't just go around and snog minors. Although I guess you could get away with it..." I trailed off, a fresh smirk laid out on my face from her enchanting self and my own ingenious wordplay.

Amu burst into giggles, an octave higher than they usually were. The scent of spirits hit my senses, but not as pungent as before. "I pash children. Men, please form a line."

"Looks like I'm the only one here, good thing no one else heard" I laugh while she cuddled back into my being. She waited a few minutes and together we lived in that unusually intimate moment. Amu would always (reluctantly, I hope) break away from our intimate moments or we were always interrupted, so it felt like plunging into foreign waters to be able to feel the moment lasting longer than a few breathless heartbeats. Then she spoke up, and I was content with the intimate time we had spent, although I was silently praying for more.

"Did the boy love her back?" she mumbled, face hidden under her rosy locks.

"Who said she ever fell in love with him?" I whispered, refusing to look at her any longer.

It hurt to continue, a pressing weight in my skull and a compressing feeling inside my chest was warning me that I wasn't exactly stable – I never was when I told my tale. The people who had survived the memory wipe were the only other human beings to hear my story, and I had emotionally broken down for a few days after I had finished. I had always hoped that she would tell me that she loved me – but let's be honest, who would love a street cat? All I was in her eyes was a lost kid, and she had a hero complex. We both did, in our own ways – except my hero complex was only for her and her own benefit.

"It was an unrequited love, for she loved a boy she had just met. The other boy was ultimately the prince of her dreams and she had fallen into a hole and onto a grubby stable boy – that was the comparison. For no one can measure up to the one who you hold in your heart."

"No." she whispered, silently drawing herself into an upright position. "No." her voice was now firmer and louder, her opinion raging freer than the ocean and I could feel myself being swept away in her deadly currents. "You're wrong. I think she loved the boy from the very start – after all there's always more than one person in your heart. It's a mix of family, friends, acquaintances, inspirations and the current love of your live. It just depends on where you draw the lines between friendship, admiration, adoration and pure love."

"I suppose." I replied monotonously, still refusing to look at the beautiful body in which her perfect soul resides. She was so right, and so enchanting. She had no idea as to the effect she made on people. And she could never be mine.

It wasn't that I didn't want her – _HA_, what a thought. My heart was always in my mouth whenever I spoke to her about something serious and I hadn't had a clue as to why I had the strangest urge to warn her about anything that Easter was plotting which had the smallest chance of affecting her. As soon as I figured out why I suddenly hated Tadase more than usual, I realised that I wanted to tell her. Oh god, I wanted her more than anything I have ever desired. Just to tell her, regardless of the answer.

But Tadase wished on the Embryo, and was ridiculously stupid. I guess it was his own wishful thinking, but regardless he over thought his wish.

There were thousands of X-Eggs in the sky, and no one in the large light filled city of Tokyo was conscious apart from the chess pieces – everyone else's dreams and sanity were floating in the sky in one mass, and the moon was no longer visible to the human eye. These chess pieces were in an intricate game, in which Easter and the Guardians fought it out in a final stand to gain the Embryo. The amusement rides continued to sing in their sadistic manner while the end of the world was imminent. If everything went Easters way, so many generations would become mindless zombies - dreamless and with hopeless futures.

I was being controlled, a marionette for Easter, and was the central part of Easter's whole last stand. My violin had been violated and negative energy was flowing through its strings and resonating with everyone's soul until they fell into a violent submission. The Guardians seemed resistant to it, and for that I was grateful. I could see everything from that tall building in the theme park, and it was almost poetic. I can still remember everything from that night, and often dream about the events which unfolded that night.

Thousands of X-Eggs were acting as powerful waves, crashing down on the buildings and then swarming up and swirling above me. The Guardian's and Utau then showed up, with what seemed to be a television psychic and Tsukasa in their van. Horrified looks and desperation flooded their senses, and they began to aimlessly purify the mess. But I kept on turning them back into negative beings, as soon as they flew out of sight – they couldn't resist the harmonious lament.

Easter wanted the Embryo, and knew it was attracted by the act of purifying negative energy. And so the Guardians were falling into a trap – I wanted to shout, scream and tell them everything. But it was too late. The Embryo appeared in the distance and slowly loomed forward. It was lured into the chaos, intrigued by the purification – although none of it was performed by Amu. I had no idea where she was, and that made me more nervous than I liked to admit. It was Utau and Yaya, Rima and Nagihiko, Tadase and Kukai who were purifying everything while Kairi coordinated everything and chased stray X-Eggs into purification zones. But it was clearly not enough. Their Joker, their wild card was missing, everything was moving too slowly and they were exhausting themselves over nothing.

No one noticed the Embryo apart from myself, until it floated down into view and everything froze.

The slowly rotating carnival ride music halted and all the power shorted out, while the X-Eggs stopped churning and stopped in their tracks. My violin stood still against my collarbone, and my bow began to lower when – _BAM!_ It was roundhouse kicked out of my frozen hands and dropped over the railing, tumbling into the darkness. My body began to blindly fight the attacker, my eyes became forced shut by the X-Egg I had been forced to character transform with. In a distant connection I felt the violin fall onto a bouncy castle, unharmed, yet far enough for its influence to wear off and the connection to disintegrate. I shook off the forced character transformation and transformed with Yoru, feeling the taste of freedom on my lips for the first time in a very long time.

My eyes cracked open, and I was finally able to control their movement. I gasped in relief, and raked my hair through my hands for a few panicked moments until I looked before me.

And there she was, Miss Amu Hinamori, smiling at me. She was untransformed, one hundred percent herself and was staring at me with tears in her eyes. She had kicked my violin, she had saved me – and she knew it. She knew it was over, and it was just me and her, two humans who were finally uninfluenced by anyone. I untransformed with Yoru and the little chara sped towards the Guardians. I opened my arms, and she began to scream my name. She ran toward me and hugged me, bawling her eyes out while trying to beat me up. I held her in that exact moment, and thanked her. Thanked her for always being there, thanked her for believing that I wasn't attacking them on purpose, thanked her for giving me a chance, and thanked her for caring. And then she opened her lips and said:

"Ikuto, I hate you so much."

I died in that exact moment. Died and dragged my sorry self to Hades for excecution. But then she continued after a long pause.

"You tease me, are the world's biggest blanket hogger, and are so confusingly irritating. But I can't imagine my life without you, and could never keep living without you in my life. You're important to me, and I'm not going to repeat that ever again so you had better remember that!" she snapped, her cool and spicy façade kicking in.

I blinked, the moment still frozen. And then I saw the red hot steaming blush etched all over her face. I began to smile - not smirk, but genuinely smile.

"You love me." I had stated, and she was about to open her mouth to reply to my question and quench the endless pool of doubt in my mind when we were interrupted.

"_Hinamori-san! The Embryo!" _Tadase screamed over the silence, and broke the mutual truce. The golden haired boy appeared next to us and pointed at the pure white egg, which clearly stood out in the sea of negative energy. Suddenly the X-Eggs swarmed towards the Embryo, encasing it in their own physical beings and concealing it from sight. Others from a far distance stopped playing their little games with the other Guardian's and sped over like metal to magnets, ignoring the Guardians futile attempts to purify them before they got to their destination.

It all happened so fast.

One second she was in my arms, sobbing and smiling and being absolutely adorable. The next I had been punched in the face by none other than Tadase, before she dashed out of my arms and towards the edge of the building.

"Ikuto, we are going to continue that conversation!" she shouted over her shoulder, before wiping her eyes, winking and sending a smile my way. "Ran – My Heart: Unlock!"

Yoru was too far away, and my head was pounding. A little stream of blood trickled over my left eye. She was going to plunge into that mass of negative energy, and I couldn't stop her and help her.

"Tadase? _What the fuck!" _I screamed, matching the kid's heated gaze.

"You were holding Hinamori-san away from the battle, and she was crying in protest. And then you tried to tell her that she loves you. You disgust me Tsukiyomi." Tadase spat, his ruby eyes raging. A distance behind him, I could see Amu surrounded by light. I clutched my head, the wound Tadase made and the physical exhaustion from breaking away from the X-Egg was making me feel weak. I wondered if Tadase had somehow gained strength from Kiseki's character, making the punch actually bleed. Amu's character transformation…I wanted to run up to her, but was too weak. What was she doing?

"Oh my God!" I raged, forgetting the pain and remembering his accusation. Tadase had finally removed the last straw; I no longer had time to play word games with him. "She just saved me from the X-Egg that I had been forced into a character transformation with, and stopped me from unwillingly orchestrating all of Easters last stand effort to get the Embryo. She was crying because she was trying to tell me that I meant a lot to her, and I was attempting to confirm if it was true. But no, I get punched in the face by a jealousy-ridden brat!"

Tadase stuttered and stammered, and no words that escaped his mouth made sense.

But behind him, Amu had become Amulet Heart and did the one most terrifying thing that I had ever seen in my life.

"Heart Speeders!" she shouted and her sneakers were replaced by roller skates. And then she somersaulted off the roof and soared full speed into the twisting tornado of negative energy, which surrounded the Embryo.

"Yoru? Yoru!" I screamed, trying to find my little chara. I had to help Amu; there was no way that she would survive that unscathed. But Yoru was nowhere to be seen.

Tadase awkwardly mumbled an apology and pulled my unconscious chara out of his pocket. He was immobilized by a bread tie.

"What the fuck?" I growled. "A bread tie, really? Now how am I supposed to help Amu?"

"I'm sorry." Tadase grumbled, face red. "I thought you two were on Easters side."

But I knew it was a lie – even when I was possessed by the X-Egg, I remembered when Yoru and Kiseki tried to save me. They were cooperating and were clearly on the same side.

"Lying is a fruitless act, and so is jealousy – now both have backfired and hurt the one you love."

And then it happened. Amu submerged herself into the negative energy and all of the X-Eggs froze and began to compact in an effort to crush the intruder. I heard a strangled cry, and I realised I was screaming along with her. A few moments later, one of the eggs began to shake. Soon enough all of the eggs were shaking, causing a steady ripple to occur until, finally, Amu Hinamori fell out off the negative energy clutching a highly sought after, pure white egg.

"Catch it! I'm fine!" she shouted, and flung the stunned Embryo towards Tadase and I.

But her Heart Speeders were gone and I couldn't let her fall. My Dumpty Key began to glow and forced a weak character transformation with my unconscious chara, and the next thing I knew I had leapt off the roof towards her, donning blue cat ears and a tail, feeling stronger than ever.

When I caught her, she was weak – weaker than I was – but was smiling. "Thank you Ikuto."

"No worries." I replied, before time went from an ongoing rush to a slowing trickle.

Everything slowed down, and I was suddenly more conscious of the wind rushing past my ears and the way that we were falling to the ground. The ground was slowly but surely coming towards us, but everything was slowing down and it didn't really matter. A butterfly slowly batted past us, before gradually stopping in its tracks. The amusement park continued to be silent as it was before Easters X-Egg plot.

Our surroundings turned a bleached white, and we could see all the Guardians in the near distance. Rima and Nagihiko were perched on top of the Merry-Go-Round, Utau and Yaya were curiously hanging from a roller coaster beam, in an attempt to see everything better. Kukai was leaning against a gargoyle, which was crouching on top of the Haunted House next to Kairi, who observed the whole scene with trained eyes. We could all hear Tadase, and all other noise was muted into silence.

"Um, I got the Embryo." Tadase began with a shaky voice, stating the obvious. "We never actually planned this, I mean we wanted to prevent Easter from gaining it, but we never decided as a group as to what we would all wish together for. I just want to say that, erm…"

He paused for a moment and I felt like slamming my head against a wall. Kiddie King was trying to make a speech, and he had no idea as to what to say. At school I knew that he had prewritten scripts to follow, but this was pure improvisation –which I knew first hand that he was not talented at. He was already lost in his words.

"It's been…great to know you all. I can, erm, hardly imagine what our lives would be like without our chara's, because, um, none of us would know each other as well as we… do now. So, er, I'm going to wish on what I always wanted to have – which is an, er, personality amendment. But before that, I want to acknowledge Easter. It's strange how Easter has – in a way – ruined our and various others lives. But even further than that is our chara's. If it weren't for them, uh, many of us wouldn't have realised our… dreams or other stuff, but without them the Embryo wouldn't exist, thus defeating the purpose of Easter turning so many dreams into negative ones. It's true. So I guess I could also wish and say – I won't, it's just an example – I could say: "Oh, I wish that our chara's never existed and that we all gained back our time together without them-"

Tadase never got to end his crappy speech, for the Embryo granted the first wish its holder had spoken. And it was the fucking stupidest thing I had ever heard, even though it held merit. But that merit was invalid, for it outweighed what we had all learnt from the experience.

All of us had been changed by the course of events which had occurred. I wouldn't have had someone to fight for, Utau wouldn't have found love in a non-family members arms. I would still hate the company of my little sister and she would still by vying for my undivided attention. Both of us would still be working for Easter, but with other jobs. Everyone changed because of what happened, Amu most of all. She used to be so defensive and far too many façades. Now she could express herself freely and wasn't afraid to be herself – now she was going to lose everything she had learnt!

The Embryo exploded into thousands of irreparable fragments of light, splintering outwards in various different directions. Amu began screaming as her character transformation undid itself, and I began to shake as my character change dissolved and then disappeared. I could no longer feel Yoru in my pocket. He was gone.

Amu continued to shriek, and the feeling of loss that I had was being quadrupled for her. She was the only person to ever possess four chara's, and she was losing all of them too early, too fast.

And then I woke up in my own bed, the memories only returning to me after I fell out of my bed and hit my head on my dresser. Later I was contacted by Kairi, Yukari, Nikaidou and Tadase about how they seemed to remember everything and no one else did.

And, more importantly about how Amu Hinamori ended up in a hospital, with so many injuries. They said that she had suffered memory loss and had sustained so many injuries by falling down three flights of stairs, through a fourth story window and then stopping when she hit the fire escape rail.

And seven years later, she still didn't remember. When would it end, when would she stop living a lie and remember her own life?

I couldn't love her, not yet. Not when I was still so scared that one day, she would wake up as her real self, and wonder why she was married to Ikuto Tsukiyomi and had four kids. Not when I didn't know how she left, and not until I knew that she loved me.

Because I would never let her go through pretending to love me, to save my feelings and dignity. I would let her choose me when she remembers, and until then, I will wait and wait and wait – even if I die waiting for her.

And I really don't mind dying in wait. Amu Hinamori was definitely worth it.

**˙·**٠••٠**·˙**

I felt something jab my face, and my eyes snapped open to see Amu blindly swatting me in the face with her dainty left hand. With a jolt, I realised that I had fallen asleep during our conversation, and she had followed suit.

"Ikuto…" she groaned into my ear, her moan sounding completely pornographic. "I hurt so much, and why am I sleeping on you? Did we have sex?"

I laughed to myself, shaking both of us while she groaned in protest at the movement.

"No Amu, we did not have sex. We are both in our clothes from last night, and I'm still sitting in the same seat as I did in the wedding ceremony – not to mention the fact that we are in a church." I answered. "Although it's not like it's too late…" I trailed off, eliciting a delicious blush from my desired rosette.

_Tsukiyomi, you still got it – even in the early hours of the morning. Your mother raised you well!_

"Whatever." Amu grumbled, brushing off my obvious advance. Even today, she was still dense. "At least Kukai and Utau got married, that's what this whole trip was for."

I smirked and rubbed my face with my left hand, still keeping my right around her waist. Still no stubble – I had doubts that I would ever manage to grow a beard of any sort. "Not to mention suddenly marrying Yaya and Kairi – now _that_ was the kind of spontaneous stuff that Vegas was made for." I chuckled, seeing her mortified expression.

"Yaya and Kairi got hooked? I was the only priestess on duty…" Amu trailed off, donning a pale pallor. Her eyes grew to the size of entrée plates. She grabbed onto me, using my body as a teddy bear – and I didn't mind that in the least. "Oh God, I promised her mother that I would keep her safe…"

"What do you define as safe?" I asked, a smirk growing on my face.

"Uninjured, not intoxicated and not under the influence of any form of drug – including caffeine. Generally keeping her from doing stuff that she would regret." She frowned, eyes unblinking. "I failed, didn't I?"

I smothered my smirk, and hugged her back. "Now, now, there's nothing that you can do that can change the past. Just keep on moving and everything will sort itself out."

"You sound so wise, I often forget about how much you must have been through." she mumbled, feeling shy all of a sudden. "I mean, the story you told me and everything. We spend so much time together that I forget that you had a life before we met, and that sounds completely selfish, but I still forget. You were the boy in the story, weren't you?"

"What makes you think that?" I answered, my face more serious than it had been in a long time. It was so much easier to disguise my true intentions with jokes and playful banter.

"Because it was so obvious, I mean, really Ikuto? You thought that even when I was completely smashed I wouldn't be able to figure something so blatantly obvious out?" she sighed, shoving her head into the crook of my neck, and I felt like purring. "I forget that you knew people before me. I mean, I only met you after Tadase introduced us in the hospital – and that was such a chanceful meeting. You were just babysitting Tadase, and he was one of my class presidents – if Kairi had decided to visit me instead, we would have never met."

"Not necessarily. I knew Kairi back then too, and quite well – along with Yukari and Nikaidou. I would have found you again."

"Again?" she asked, head jumping up from my shoulder. "And since when did you know Kairi?"

"I knew Kairi from when Yukari worked for Easter, the Tsukiyomi company that Utau and I run, remember? The place I occasionally record my music at?" I covered, attempting to distract her with questions.

"You said again." she snapped, clearly not falling for it.

"Huh?" I felt like slapping myself, there was no way that she was going to let this one go - no matter how much I was going to try to cover my tracks, she was going to persist.

"You just implied that you knew me before you saw me in the hospital. And I saw the way you looked at me that day – like you were seeing someone that you used to know. And you always drop hints, and sing silly little songs like the 'Drew Draw Drawn' medley whenever I do my art, and then tell me that I know the rest. What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on." I lied, regretting telling her the story and staying off my guard. I felt like I was drowning, and all I could do was deny everything.

It's not like I didn't want to tell her – I wanted to more than anything. But the first and last time I tried to tell her was when she was in the hospital. I told her everything, and the second recognition dawned in her eyes, her condition plummeted and she had to be taken to Intensive Care. Lesson learnt, she needed to remember on her own.

"And that girl in the story." She started, eyes fiery.

"What about her?"

"You loved her."

"It was just a story I made up Amu, calm down."

""_I smell fresh eggs. You have character eggs, don't you?""_ Amu mimicked in an absolutely perfect imitation of my teenage voice. Hope sparked in me, and I threw a fire blanket over it before it could rage into a blazing bushfire. "How come when you were telling your story, your voice, but younger was echoing inside my head so loudly that it hurt? Why don't I remember you?"

"I can't say anything." I whispered, defeated. Amu leapt off my lap, hangover defeated in her mentality rage. And I couldn't help her – I had never felt weaker.

_Well, perhaps not never… the moment when she jumped off that roof was absolutely terrible – not to mention the past seven years…_

"There's more too, and it doesn't make sense. There's these…voices that shout at me all the time when I'm off guard and about to go to sleep. They scream "_Amu-chan!" _at me and one always chants _"Go, go Amu-chan! Yay, yay, Amu-chan!" _– and you have no idea how much it scares me. What kind of messed up subconscious do I have?" she shouted, fisting her rosen hair in pure frustration. "And I know that you know, and now you know that I know that you know. So tell me!"

"I can't. It will break you." I muttered, not wanting to look at her. Pure desperation leaked from the corners of her eyes, and I wanted to die.

"Ikuto, I never bought the story that I fell down three stories of stairs, out a window and then slammed into the fire escape rail. I would have died, not obtained amnesia about the past 36 months I had experienced in Westwood Academy and the one month I had apparently spent getting used to Seiyo." she growled, pacing forwards and back in her heels. "Great, now I'm hearing other stuff. "_Ikuto-nya, Ikuto-nya…" _and it keeps on going! And what's with all this "Unlock my heart" bullshit? What was I, and why am I only finding out seven years later? I was content with who I was, with where we were going."

"And where were we going?" I asked, in a futile attempt to change the subject. She needed to unlock her own memories in her own time instead of rushing.

"Well." She mumbled, completely crashing to a stop. "Well."

"Well?" I asked, attempting to coax another word out.

"Well." She replied, not falling for my trap. Damn.

"Hey Ikuto…" Amu asked, a small smile forming at the corner of her lips. "The story was real, right?"

"…Correct." I answered, giving in. She could know this, and nothing but this. This would be the only thing I would give to her, for fear of hurting her again like in the hospital. Where was she going with this?

"The girl from your story was me, wasn't it?" …Oh, _oh._ That's where she was going.

"What makes you think that?" I asked, plastering a smirk over my would-be expressionless face. I was so hopeful, so hopeful that it hurt…

"When you met me, the first thing you said was that you had never met someone with such strong honey coloured eyes like mine, let alone any which were a yellow tone. In the story you were seventeen and you met me when it was on the eve of your eighteenth birthday."

"Yes, yes I did." I murmured, closing my eyes. I prayed for a few minutes, and Amu stayed silent. I prayed for anything and everything, but above all that – calm. And when I opened my eyes, I saw the one thing that made that regained calm shatter.

She was falling to the floor, eyes fluttering shut.

I lunged forward, and caught her before she hit the ground. I found myself in a familiar position, with her head on my lap, and I couldn't help but remember that time where our positions were reversed. It was certainly a lifetime ago. I routinely checked her temperature by kissing her forehead like my mother had done to me, and didn't mind it a bit. In fact, If I were to be completely honest, I liked it a bit too much but I didn't get carried away. No, I would never kiss her without her permission – unless it was something concerning her health such as CPR or the current circumstance. Amu was fine, and wasn't reacting anything like she had when she had been shipped off to Intensive care. A strong fever had been the first sign, and there was definitely no signs of a fever – let alone the raging one that participated in almost killing her.

I felt like crying - I had hurt her, I had tipped her too much. She needed to gain the memories back in her own time, but instead I was forcing memories onto her. I stared at her closed eyelids, and groaned. Perhaps it would be better for her if I didn't exist in her life.

Amu's eyes began to flutter, and I stroked the fuchsia hair out of her honeycomb eyes. No, I couldn't love without her, no matter how many times I hurt her. I was selfish in that way, but I really couldn't imagine my life without the crazy little girl.

And then she smiled, a true smile.

"Hop, step, jump. Drew, draw, drawn. Chip, syrup, whip. My true self, my radiance sparkling like diamonds. And you were the bitch who broke my tart after groping me for my chara eggs the day before!" Then she started to giggle, a hand futilely trying to contain them. "Oh my God, Tadase's speech was _so bad…!_"

My heart began to pound a million miles a hour and I couldn't breathe. It had finally happened, and of all places it was in a crappy little church in Vegas, both of us recovering from a hangover. Seven years I had waited, and the first Amu that I had fallen in love with had returned to me. I began to smile, smirks were now beyond me.

"Incredibly so. What were you thinking, diving into those X-Eggs?" I tried to scowl, but I couldn't stop smiling.

"Needed to save the world, etcetera, etcetera. Boring things that don't matter anymore. What were _you_ thinking, letting Tadase catch the Embryo and instead deciding that catching me was a better idea?" she laughed, looking up into my eyes. I stroked her hair, entwining it around my hands.

"Why would I catch the Embryo when I had the option to catch you instead? I vowed that the moment you fell, I would catch you." I replied, and we both knew that I wasn't just talking about falling in the physical sense of the matter.

"We never did get to return to that conversation." Amu mumbled, face growing red – but hardly as scarlet as it had once been. Amu had grown up, and in this little moment, her company was all mine.

"Ah, you're so confident now." I chuckled. "I almost miss the stuttering mess that I've been accustomed to."

"You would be confident too if the person you thought didn't like you back stayed with you for seven years after you lost all of your memory of them." Amu snapped, and I tousled her hair. She growled and threatened decapitation by snapping her teeth at my fingers.

"I guess I would be." I mused, before letting her sit upright. She sat on the floor in front of me, and I felt a smirk fall onto my face – force of habit, I guess. "And I guess I still feel the same."

And then something inside me broke and all of my restraint fell away and drifted into the sky, like a thousand balloons.

"You better, because I've loved you for two lifetimes now – in the Guardian's and Easter days and the memory loss days. From the moment I fell on you in that hole, I loved you – even though you were a pervert and were supposedly evil. It took me ages to get through the denial, but after that it was quite clear that I loved you. And the moment Tadase walked inside my hospital room and you trailed in after him, I knew that you would be mine and were already mine, so I tried to be so likeable so that you would come back and visit me, so that it wouldn't be a onetime thing. The longer you stayed in my life, the more you confirmed my suspicions." She mumbled. Her face was going to be stained scarlet by the time she would finish, and I loved it. "I'm kind of in love with you."

"Any other way would be completely unacceptable, because I fell in love with you when you were twelve." I chuckled, keeping my fingers busy with her silky hair. "It's one thing for a twelve year old to crush on a seventeen year old, but when it goes the other way around its time to do come moral re-evaluation. It took me so long to figure out that I loved you the whole time, and I'm so sorry about how I screwed around with your feelings." I confessed, staring into her magnificently beautiful golden honeycomb eyes which were now mine as much as mine were hers. They were always hers, and although it was never spoken aloud, she knew so too.

In fact, from that breathless moment when she fell on me in that dusty hole in the construction yard, I had given myself away to her. And now she was returning to me, and my life was finally complete – seven years in the past, she had just forgotten who I was. Seven years into the future, who knows where we would be?

But there was one thing I did know, just from looking at our intertwined fingers. I knew that we would be together for more than just one lifetime – memory loss did not affect our feelings, nor would time.

If we didn't last as a couple, I would be heartbroken. But there was no time to even consider that as a possibility. I would love her regardless of whether it was reciprocated or not. I would always be hers, and we were all that mattered in that exact moment.

"Welcome back, my beloved."

* * *

><p>Hiyah, thanks for reading my little mess. I've given it my best shot, and dropping a little review would be deeply appreciated. And I would love you forever.<p>

The next chapter of Saving the Joker will be coming soon! I just need to figure out how to read my own scrawl, so technically its already written.

The next chapter of Isolate the Sunshine will be coming out sometime. I just need to figure out how to write a tragedy scene, which I'm already hating myself for - but it needs to be done.

Um, 100 Themes, 100 Moments - I was looking through my notebooks and found about seven that had potential. I might post them later, when I'm not drowning in homework and all.

Graduated my Pen name from (exdot)Ezra(exdot) to ellalola - I figured it was about time I got one without the x's and dots. They dont appear on stories, so my name just appears as x.

Have a great day! :D #iloveyou,morethanafatkidlovescake


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